The poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal

Reuters runs an explanatory piece on what is known about the recent poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury. According to the UK’s top counter-terrorism officer, a nerve agent was used to poison Skripal and his daughter, who were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center. Skripal rose to the rank of colonel in Russia’s GRU military intelligence service before being arrested and convicted of treason in Russia for passing secrets to Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency. In 2010, Moscow freed Skripal from prison and sent him to the West as part of a prisoner swap with the U.S. He had since been living in England. Skripal and his daughter remain in critical condition in the hospital.